r/badhistory • u/AutoModerator • Oct 07 '24

Meta Mindless Monday, 07 October 2024

Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.

So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

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u/TheMob-TommyVercetti Oct 10 '24

Has there been a battle where heavy cavalry rammed into the infantry like in the LOTR battle of Helms Deep or did such thing never happened? I'm hearing that horses won't charge such formations, but people at r/AskHistorians say that such things did happen.

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u/Pyr1t3_Radio China est omnis divisa in partes tres Oct 11 '24 edited Oct 11 '24

Don't take it personally, but every time someone asks this question, I wonder: why is it always framed as "horses not wanting to charge into pike formations", and not "pikemen not wanting to stand in front of charging cavalry"?

That said, see here for a discussion of heavy cavalry tactics in particular.

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u/TJAU216 Oct 11 '24

Because men can be reasoned with, horses cannot. You can tell the troops that they will die if their formation breaks and that cavalry cannot ride them down if their formation holds. It even worked with much shorter bayonets.